


peace to the ones who pray

by kathillards



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers S.P.D.
Genre: Bed-sharing, Multi, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 18:47:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11167875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathillards/pseuds/kathillards
Summary: SPD Handbook Rule 478-B: Cadets will not enter another cadet’s living space.





	peace to the ones who pray

After Jack leaves, there’s an underlying tension to the way Z’s muscles move, the tick of her smiles, the hole in the happiness. Sky notices, if only because he’s her leader, and partly because he pays too much attention to Z anyway, but he knows it doesn’t get better after a few days, or a week, or two weeks.

When Kat pulls them aside to inform them, off the record, that Cruger is considering adding a C-Squad cadet to their team as a green ranger, it only gets worse. That’s the first night she shows up at his room in the night, half-sleepy, half-not.

“Sorry,” she mutters, rubbing her eyes when he looks up from his book to see her standing in the doorway, just a silhouette against the dim lights of the hallway. “I thought – I don’t know.”

He’s her leader, and her friend, so he puts the book away and asks, “Thought what?” as gently as possible. Since he’s Sky, it’s probably not as gentle as it could be, but Z’s not gentle either, so he doesn’t think she minds. “Why don’t you come in?”

She does, more hesitantly than she might if she were awake. “I used to… come here,” she admits. “When this was Jack’s room. Just – when I needed his company, or whatever. I guess I kinda forgot it’s your room now.”

Sky can’t blame her; sometimes he forgets, too. “You know it’s against SPD regulations,” he can’t help but tease. Z rolls her eyes and turns to leave, but he grabs her wrist quickly, afraid the teasing had come out more serious, as it often does with him. “No, no, come on, stay. We’re teammates. Cruger won’t know.”

“You make it sound like we’re doing something illicit,” she mutters, half a grin quirking her lips. Not quite to happiness, not yet.

“Are we?” he asks, raising an eyebrow at her. She shrugs and drops down on his bed, just enough space between them to still be appropriate. “What’d you do with Jack, when he was here?”

“Nothing,” she says, picking at a hole in her black tights. “Talked, mostly. Sometimes I’d fall asleep here. I don’t know, it was back when we were new and I couldn’t stand Syd and I just – I needed him.”

He doesn’t miss the underlying _I need him_ , present tense, but he doesn’t say anything about it. “What do you want to talk about?”

Z sighs. “I don’t want a new teammate.”

“Ah,” he says, having figured that might be it. “So… you’re here to talk to your team leader?”

She punches him in the arm for that, not hard, but enough that he moves from the momentum. “No, I hate talking to my team leader,” she retorts. Sky makes a face at her in mock-offense. “Can you just, like, tell me it’ll be okay or something stupid?”

He studies her for a moment, watching the wave of her hair as it falls into her eyes, the emotions flickering over her face that she tries to hide, and then says, “No.”

Z sighs. “I thought you might say that.”

“I don’t know if it’ll be okay,” he admits. “I thought, once we defeated Grumm, everything would be normal, but it’s not. It’s all a little off, like… like someone moved all the furniture five inches to the left. And I don’t know how to fix it.”

His metaphor garners a ghost of a smile. “I don’t know, either.”

“I guess…” Sky pauses, struggling to make sure each word is chosen carefully. “I guess all we can do is keep going. That’s what Jack would say, right?”

“If Jack were here, we wouldn’t need a new teammate,” she says, a frown crossing her face. “If Jack were here – ”

“Hey,” he says quickly, drawing an arm around her. The touch makes her go quiet. “If Jack were here, he’d tell you to stop being so dramatic. And he’d say he’s going to talk to Cruger first thing in the morning. And he’d ask you to stay.”

Z tilts her head. “Is that what you’re saying?”

“That I’m going to talk to Cruger first thing in the morning?”

She shoves him again, but doesn’t dislodge his arm from around her. “Asking me to stay.”

“If you want to,” Sky says carefully. “There’s room on the bed.”

Z lifts an eyebrow at him. “Jack made me sleep on the couch.”

He pauses. “No, he didn’t.”

“No, he didn’t,” she grins. “But thanks.”

“Go to sleep,” Sky tells her with a fond sigh. “And we’ll talk to Cruger in the morning. Together. As a team.”

And because they’re a team, she listens, unwinds herself from his side and goes to lay down on the extra pillow. They don’t touch, but there’s a comfort in her breathing, her steady, solid presence at his side. Knowing she’s not about to leave. Knowing that neither is he.

.

It sort of becomes a habit. Not every night or anything, just when she can’t sleep. Or, sometimes, when he can’t sleep, and she shows up at his door like a ghost, like she knows. Maybe she can sense the nightmares.

Maybe she’s not the only one.

“Are we having a sleepover?” Bridge asks, peering into the room through the ajar door. “Or is it just you guys?”

Sky would be embarrassed, but Z just smiles and shakes her head. It occurs to him that none of his teammates really care about SPD regulations. It occurs to him, too, that neither does he, anymore. Not the meaningless ones, anyway.

“Come in,” he says, waving Bridge inside. “Is Syd asleep?”

“She sleeps like a rock,” Z snorts. “Snores, too. Don’t tell her I told you that.”

“I’m glad at least one of us can get some sleep,” Bridge says, sitting down on the floor with crossed legs. “I keep thinking about the battle. And then I start thinking of everything else. And then I start remembering old monsters and then I start thinking about – ”

“Bridge,” Sky interrupts quickly. “It’s okay.”

Bridge goes quiet with a thoughtful hum. “You guys, too?”

“It’s just hard,” Z says softly. “To go back to normalcy. At least for me. I never even had a normal time at SPD. It was always ranger-ing. And now – now we’re just cops. Everything is so dull, and boring. And nobody wants to talk about what happened.”

“Post-traumatic stress disorder,” Sky says, shrugging. “Everyone deals with it their own way.”

“Are we dealing with it?” Bridge asks, gaze darting between Sky and Z. “In our own way?”

Z slides off the bed and goes to sit next to Bridge. “Why don’t we have a sleepover?” she suggests. “There are sleeping bags somewhere, right?”

Sky makes a face at her. “I’m not having you guys sleep on my floor.”

“I’m just saying – ”

“It’s a king size bed,” Sky says firmly. “Both of you can sleep in here.”

Bridge and Z trade glances, but they don’t protest. Sky doesn’t sleep much that night because Bridge is a kicker, but despite that, he doesn’t feel as tired the next morning, not the way he does when he wakes up alone.

.

Syd shows up the next night, clutching her pink teddy bear and looking extremely offended. For once, he notices, her hair isn’t piled high in curlers. It’s loose and messy, like she’s actually tried to sleep.

“I can’t believe you guys would have a sleepover without me,” she pouts, walking over and dropping down on Sky’s bed like she belongs there.

“Sorry, Syd, we didn’t wanna wake you,” Z says, leaning back on her palms on the floor. She smiles at her roommate, and Syd manages a small smile back.

“I don’t like sleeping alone either,” she confesses, hugging her teddy bear to her chest. “It’s so empty around SPD these days. Like everyone’s just gone, ever since the battle. No activity. No energy. I know people are still around, but it’s not the same.”

“A lot of cadets took vacation days,” Sky points out. “And some – some are gone.” Dead, he doesn’t say. “And the only things left to do are take care of the city clean-up, and that’s all going smoothly so…”

“So there’s nothing for us to do,” Z says, sighing deeply.

“That’s not true,” Bridge pipes up. “We help with the clean-up. And we keep those rogue krybots in line. And if any monsters try to escape…”

“But it’s not the same,” Syd agrees. “I wish Jack were here.”

Sky looks at her and says, “It’s his room. I think he would be happy to know we were all sleeping in here tonight. Together.”

.

Although he’s pretty sure he’s right about that, the next night, when the other three are slowly drifting off to sleep in his bed, he waits an hour, then gets to his feet. Careful not to disturb Syd, who’s sleeping closest to him, he slides his shoes on and pads out of the room.

A jacket and a brisk walk in the nighttime later, he finds himself in front of Jack’s door. Shaking a little from the cold, but determined.

Jack blinks when he sees him there. “Sky… what the hell are you doing out here at two in the morning?”

“Came to see you,” Sky says, forcing a casual shrug. “No time like the present, right?”

Jack shakes his head. “You’re unbelievable,” he says, and pulls him into the warmth of his house. “What happened? Bad dream? Got a monster on the loose and you need my help?”

“You wish,” Sky grins. Jack laughs and sits him down on the couch, throwing a light blanket around him. “I’ve got all the other three sleeping in my bed, so I had to find somewhere else to spend the night.”

“And you thought of my couch?” Jack raises an eyebrow. “I’m touched, but I’m pretty sure there are empty rooms at SPD you could just steal. Red ranger,” he adds teasingly.

“Maybe, but,” Sky pauses, rolling his shoulder to work out a crick. “I wanted to talk to you.”

Jack sits down next to him, and everything goes quiet for a minute. “About what?”

“…I don’t know,” Sky admits. Jack snorts, and he continues, “How are you doing? After everything – after the battle.”

“Great, obviously,” Jack says, flinging an arm around the back of the couch. “Why, you having trouble sleeping?”

“I think we’re all having trouble sleeping,” Sky says, searching Jack’s face closely. “It helps, sleeping together. Hence the sleepovers. I just thought… maybe you were dealing with things, too. Or dealing with them better, I guess.”

Jack flashes him a grin. “When have I ever dealt with anything better than you, Tate?”

“Only always,” Sky says, and earns himself a laugh.

“I mean,” Jack hesitates, licking his lips. “I guess I have nightmares, and all. But I’ve always had them. Growing up on the streets doesn’t really do good things for your psyche, you know. Back then, I always had Z, though. Now it’s just… just me.”

“Ally?” Sky suggests.

Jack shakes his head. “She’s great, but she’s not you guys. She wasn’t there, y’know. Can’t ever really understand it. I don’t think anyone but the five of us can ever _really_ understand it.” He pauses, then adds, “Maybe Cruger.”

“Well, we’re definitely not having sleepovers with him,” Sky says. Jack grins again. “You know you’re always welcome to spend the night at SPD.”

“Is that why you’re here?” Jack nudges him in the shoulder. “To invite me to your team sleepovers?”

“To remind you,” Sky says, softer, “that you always have a place with us.”

Jack goes quiet for a minute. Then he says, “Thanks,” in a voice that sounds almost hoarse. “I miss you guys, too, you know. Don’t think I don’t.”

“I know you’re happy here,” Sky offers. “We just miss you around.”

He nods, slowly. “Why don’t you stay here for the night? I’ll call the others in the morning to get you.”

“They’re not gonna be happy I left,” Sky says with a brief smile.

Jack shrugs and claps him on the shoulder. “Hey, that’s what being a leader is all about, right?”

“I guess so,” Sky says, and Jack gets up so he can lie down on the couch. He thinks, for a minute, that Jack might leave and go back to his own bedroom, but instead, he sits on the armchair and waits for him to sleep.

When he wakes up, Jack is awake, but still there. He doesn’t ask if he spent the whole night in the armchair.

.

It’s a weekend, so it’s almost noon by the time the other three troop up to Jack’s house to find them both there drinking coffee.

“Hey, what’s the big idea, sneaking out and not telling us?” Z demands, though she doesn’t sound seriously mad as she steals his cup and takes a sip herself.

“You guys take up the whole bed,” Sky protests.

“Then get a bigger bed,” Syd says with an air of ‘duh’. “You’re the red ranger, hello. Just put in a request.”

“I’m sure Cruger won’t find that at all suspicious,” Jack says with a laugh. “Why don’t you guys just buy a giant air mattress yourselves? I know a guy.”

“Really, who?” Bridge asks in excitement. There’s a pause as Jack stares at him and he says, “Oh, right. You’re the guy.”

Sky smiles as the conversation lapses into jokes and laughter. It’s the first time, really, since the end of everything that the team has all been together like this, not counting the small, brief visits to Jack’s charity they’d made. But Ally had been there, too, and Piggy, and there was always an emergency calling them away.

Today, for once, there’s nothing. Just the sounds of his teammates’ voices, the hum of laughter, the smell of Jack’s too-bitter coffee in the air. It’s a nice way to be, he thinks. The five of them in a home far away from the fighting. Far away from the nightmares.

Z calls to Jack, “Try spending a night sleeping in Sky’s bed, then you can talk,” and Jack looks over at him with a smirk.

“Yeah?” Jack says, and leans back, smiling widely at his team – their team. “Maybe I will.”


End file.
